


Internal Mechanics

by FanofBttf



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Canon Compliant Historical Setting, Episode: s01e40 The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein, F/M, Falling In Love, Not Related, Sequel to drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 18:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16224539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanofBttf/pseuds/FanofBttf
Summary: After the night of her wards' participation in the monster contest turned into first the most traumatizing and then the most confusing night of her life, Lady Constance would prefer to stay hidden inside her room the whole next day. However, one of the residents of the castle she lives in is ready to pull her out of her shell.





	Internal Mechanics

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this story for a long time, but kept postponing uploading it if only because it didn't really fit with anything, being too long for the drabble prompts (even by my standards) and not really fitting one of the prompts anyway. But as I was recently reminded, the length of a story doesn't matter for uploading it. 
> 
> Note: This story is a direct sequel to drabbles number 32 and 33 of my drabble collection. Reading them beforehand is highly recommended.

_“So I was all like, ‘I can explain’, but he wouldn’t listen and he broke my_ heart _Stacehilda, he really did, and it was awful, and I ran back to the castle feeling all desolate and more alone than I have in all these years I’ve lived here, but when I got back…things happened, things that I never would have expected and yet I can’t exactly say I disliked them. You see…”_

A knock on the door disturbed Constance’s reverie. She momentarily froze before turning to the entrance, behind which could only be one person. She hesitated before deciding that she really had no excuse to keep him out. Her life might be turned upside down, but she didn’t want him to believe that she didn’t care about him at all.

“Come in,” she said softly, her voice barely carrying to the door.

Phineastein walked in, a more solemn in his eyes than she’d ever seen on him, even whenever an experiment would have failed. From the bags below them, he clearly hadn’t had a good night’s sleep either. He sat down at the end of the bed, while Constance remained on her side, having put down her goose feather to give him her full attention.

“So…” he began, looking around the room before finally focusing on her. “Are we going to talk about what happened last night?”

Constance almost smiled. Straight to the point, as always. “If you want to.”

Phineastein nodded. He almost looked sheepish, a strange expression on the mad scientist. “I really started thinking after I’d gone to bed, and I figured that maybe I had reacted a little too soon” he said. “I mean, you had just had your heart broken by Jeremiah and all, so me trying to jump into that gap straight away… I should have known that would make you uncomfortable. So to make it up to you, I brought you this.”

Constance frowned. “A rose?”

The young inventor gave her his characteristic grin. “A rose indeed – but not just any rose, Constance!” He shifted one of the thorns and before her eyes a new stem protruded from between the rose leaves and swiftly developed into a new rose. And then another stem protruded with the same effect, and another, and another, for each of the thorns Phineastein flipped. He smirked. “It’s a mechanical rose! The components for an entire bouquet contained in one flower and you can fold it out and in at will. The best thing is, you don’t have to water it and it’ll last forever, barring mechanical failure of course.” He handed it over to her.

Constance accepted the present, briefly marveled at its ingenuity and put it behind her. “Look, Phineastein…” She sighed. “I never meant to make you feel like you had to apologize. I was just shocked, that’s all. We’ve lived together for five years now and I had never considered you in that way.” Her friend frowned. “To be fair, it wasn’t exactly what you would have expected either when I first came here, was it?”

Phineastein smiled. “Oh no, I’ll grant you that. I remember the day you got here like it was yesterday.”

_The tower’s grim walls had never appealed to him so much as today. If their inventions would have the same effect on their new governess as the ordinary decoration of their home had, maybe this would only be a temporary inconvenience before the townsfolk would learn they couldn’t bestow someone upon every mad scientist they feared._

_“And these will be your living quarters, miss…” Phineastein turned to her questioningly. “I’m sorry, I never got your name.”_

_The young woman inspected the room, gazing back and forth before finally turning towards him. “It’s Lady Constance Bustford.”_

_Phineastein nodded. “I see. May I call you ‘Stance?”_

_Constance sniffed indignantly. “Just_ Con _stance, please. I… heavens, what’s that sound?”_

_Phineastein perked his ears and then smiled smugly. “That? Oh, that’s just my latest project. Ferbgor, would you please show our new governess what you’ve made?”_

_The scream that erupted from Constance’s throat at the sight of his hunchbacked assistant and the one-eyed giant next to him was just as satisfying as he’d hoped it would be._

Constance chuckled at the memory. “I almost bolted and ran out of the castle right away.”

“But you didn’t.” Phineastein smirked. “And that was what first got me thinking that there had to be more to you than met the eye. Not just some bureaucratic, fancy-dressed young woman who was here to ‘protect the fair town of Gimmelshtump from those evil wizards’,” she could hear the familiar disdain in his voice, “but an actual human woman who was brave and confident and had her own thoughts and feelings.”

Constance nodded. “We really got off on the wrong foot there, didn’t we? It wasn’t until a few months later that I told you about my parents, as I recall.”

“About three months, I think” Phineastein agreed. “I think my hostility against you just vanished once I discovered you’d been raised in such a stifling environment and got punished for everything the wood trolls did.”

Constance shivered. “I hated those trolls, I hated the supernatural, and by the end I wasn’t fond of my parents either. That youth left me with just three impressions – one, that being accused of something you didn’t do and never being able to show who really did it is the worst, two, that magic and science and wizardry were all dangerous, and three, that the only way to avoid punishment for misbehavior was to be the finest example of a lady there was.”

Phineastein patted her shoulder. “I know. But you got over that, didn’t you?”

“I did, gradually” Constance agreed. “It took me weeks to get accustomed to you guys and treat you as anything beyond the threats I was supposed to monitor. Although not being sure whether Ferbgor was actually human couldn’t have helped either.”

Phineastein grinned. “Ah, come on. Did you really think Ferbgor could have been one of my creations?”

“I wouldn’t have put it past you, Dr. Phineastein.” She used his title only when she was trying to flatter him, and it worked every single time. “Where is he now, anyway?”

“Outside, testing one of my inventions” Phineastein replied. “It’s a machine to get rid of the weed around the castle. I call it the Locomotive And Water-run New Machine for Outside Weed and Excess Removal – the L.A.W.N.M.O.W.E.R.”

Constance frowned. “I’m not sure I understand the purpose of a lot of those terms within the acronym.”

Phineastein shrugged. “Me neither, but we needed something that was readily pronounceable if we wanted to invent something actually fit for commercial use. Maybe that will teach the people of Drusselstein we’re actually good for something.”

Constance snorted. “Tough luck. I’ve been trying to get them to see that for five years now, remember? It never works. At least I know you and Ferbgor are geniuses.”

The inventor nodded pensively. “Yeah.” He put a hand on Constance’s shoulder. She flinched, but didn’t move. “I think that’s what made me attracted to you for the first time, Stance. Your drive and passion was part of it, of course, as was your physical attractiveness, but I think that besides Ferbgor, you were the first to really understand me. To understand my projects were worthwhile. And even if you tried to bust them to the Mob, at least you’d dare to come close enough to get them intellectually.”

Constance smiled. “Maybe that’s just because the townsfolk of Gimmelshtump are so stupid. I almost have to be smarter by comparison.” She walked over to the window.

“Maybe” Phineastein allowed. “But although you still work for them, you… Constance, you don’t really belong out there, do you? You’re not one of them. You belong here, with us. With me.”

Constance blinked, surprised at the sudden flow of words as she turned to her friend giving her one of his classic puppy-dog-eyes-looks that she could never resist unless she was fully into busting mode. “That’s a far cry from the way you thought about me when we first met” she replied softly. “You couldn’t wait until those six years were over, remember?”

“Yeah” Phineastein agreed. “I even made a countdown to help me measure the time until we would be alone again.”

Constance smiled, but it was a solemn, contemplating smile. “And it’s just one year now. That’s why us… we… we could never work out, could we? There’s the age gap, but not just that. In one year, my work here will be done and I’ll have to find a new place to go.”

Phineastein blinked and shot to his feet, stunned by her words. “Constance, I don’t want you to leave!”

His governess stared at him. Maybe she could have seen those words coming, but they still felt like a shock to her. “You… what?”

The brilliant doctor Phineastein looked very average and uncertain at that moment. “Look, Constance… if you want to go, I won’t stop you. But you don’t need to go. I… I _want_ you to stay with us, Constance. Stay here for the rest of your life. You’ll never have to worry about your financial security again.”

The young woman just stared at him, the offer blowing rational thought out of the water for a moment. “Phineastein, I…”

“Constance…” Phineastein replied, walking over to her and grasping her arms softly. “I love you. It’s as simple as that. I’ve never had romantic feelings before I met you, but now… will you stay with us? You, me and Ferbgor?” He hesitated, but then grinned broadly in the way she’d known him to, throwing insecurities into the wind. “Constance, will you marry me?”

 _That_ was an even bigger shock, and it was one that caused her legs to feel faint. Luckily Phineastein caught her before they could give way, and she smiled up at him. As annoying as he and Ferbgor often were, she had to admit that she couldn’t imagine a life without him either. Not anymore.

Her friend blinked at her. “I’m moving too fast again, right?” he said softly. “Look, it’s not a decision you have to make right away. You can consider it for a while. You could even consider it all year… although I really hope you won’t.”

Constance nodded. “I can imagine why” she replied. “It is quite a shock, though. Even Jeremiah never proposed to me, although the thought was always on my mind.”

Phineastein frowned. “But you two haven’t been courting for all that long, have you?”

Was it her imagination, or was he actually jealous whenever she talked of her ex-suitor? It was such a strange and yet endearing expression on him that Constance couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before.

“Not as long as I might have liked” she agreed warily. “But perhaps longer than we should have.” She frowned. “You never did like him, did you? Not even at the start.”

Her friend blushed, which was also an unusual sight on him. She was really seeing aspects of him today that she had never seen before, wasn’t she? It was strange – and yet oddly flattering – to realize that _she_ , of all people, was capable of having such an effect on him. “I didn’t” he admitted. “I knew he was a nice person, it just irked me from the start that he was going to take you away from us. If anything, that’s something I can give him credit for – making me realize how I felt about you, that I didn’t want you to leave. You make the household complete. Even if you’d decide to turn down my offer, the other one about staying here still stands.”

Constance smiled warmly at him. “I still can’t believe I never noticed how you felt about Jeremiah before” she said softly. “I guess the fact that you put your foot down on us not meeting on castle grounds should have tipped me off, but… Phineastein, if you truly loved me, why didn’t you just say something?”

Phineastein shrugged. “I guess I just hated the thought of having to admit my feelings” he replied, almost sounding shy. “And it never would have changed anything, anyway. You were too busy making goo-goo eyes at him and worshipping the ground he walked on whenever he showed up. If I’d uttered any criticism of him, I would have only driven you further away from me, and that was the last thing I wanted.”

His governess nodded. “Well, at least you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

“No, I guess not.”

Phineastein sat down on her bed. She sat next to him, and neither spoke for about half a minute until he cleared his throat again. “If you don’t mind me asking, what would your plans for the future be if you didn’t stay?”

Constance was taken aback by the question, probably because she’d never really given it serious consideration. “I don’t know” she admitted. “I might try to find a similar profession again, but I’m not sure if it would ever work out the same way.” From the look on her admirer’s face, he was relieved by that. “Maybe I’d just go back to my old home, back to my parents. I was going to go there anyway to introduce Jeremiah… but if I did accept your proposal, I’d probably postpone that visit at least for a while. I can’t imagine they’d take meeting _you_ so well.”

Phineastein grinned at her, trying (and failing hopelessly) to cover up the nervous twinkle in his eyes when he realized that Constance was actually considering the offer. “Why not? I’m a brilliant scientist!”

“Most definitely” Constance agreed. “You’re also crazy at times, and I can assure you my parents would be even worse than the townsfolk of Gimmelshtump when it comes to understanding your capacities. I can just imagine it now – Mother, Father, you always wanted to meet the man I was in a relationship with – well, this is him! Yes, it’s the man in the lab coat, who has a triangular face and a manic grin as his standard facial expression, and who is constantly followed around by what seems to be a living corpse! It’s Dr. Phineastein… Phineastein…” She frowned. “You know, I don’t think I ever _did_ catch your last name before.”

Phineastein chuckled. “That’s weird, isn’t it? After five years.” He smiled. “I guess everyone gets so hung up on the fact that I’m an eccentric inventor that they think it’s not necessary for me to have something as mundane as a surname. It’s Flynn.”

“Flynn.” Constance pondered the name in her mind. It didn’t exactly sound Drusselsteinian, but that wasn’t on the forefront of her thoughts at that moment. “Mrs. Constance Flynn.”

The inventor gave her a hesitant, curious look. “Do you like it?”

“I… it’s better than Johnson, for one thing” Constance replied. “Yeah. Yes, I think I do like the way it sounds.”

The look of relief and hope and sheer joy on his face made her hug him and for a few moments they just held each other like that, one mad scientist and one respectable English girl, brought together by circumstances they never could have foreseen. It wasn’t until after about half a minute that Constance realized what they were doing and awkwardly pulled away.

Phineastein cleared his throat and looked awkward as well. “I’d best be going” he said. “Ferbgor and I are making dinner tonight. It should be ready at five.”

“I’ll be there.” Constance looked after him as he walked out of the door and down the stairs in the tower that lead to her room. It was hard to imagine that if she were to accept his proposal, she’d be spending the rest of her life with him.

But frankly, it was even harder to imagine spending it without him.

She took her goose feather again and resumed writing. _“My apologies for the smudged ink, Stacehilda – but I was distracted from writing this letter for a moment for what might one day turn out to have been the most important conversation of my life…”_


End file.
